What is the better approach for a coach/pitching coach to take? Lighten the load on his pitchers and set pitch limits, dh for pitchers, rest pitchers on games their not pitching, disallow pitchers from playing other positions, etc all to protect their arms. OR…discourage pitch limit (let him go as long as he’s still getting guys out), pitch into extra innings, long toss every day, have pitchers play other positions when taken out of game/games their not pitching, etc.

Both are extreme examples but i feel like a lot of coaches “baby” their pitchers and that leads to injuries/vulnerability to injuries . I don’t have the statistics or proof for this but what do you guys think?

At my school I would say that our coaches are on the more conservative side. We DH for every pitcher except for one kid, and the main starting pitchers have a limit unless it’s a big game or something like that. We only have one PO, so the rest of us play another position. We throw a lot of long toss in the off season, and it varies for each person in season. We run a ton. Like pitchers run every single day and it’s usually pretty tiring. I guess it varies for each program and what wins them games.

My son made Varsity as a Sophomore.
But, he was overmatched by the pitchers.
He was such a bad hitter that year the coach would DH for him…even when he was playing first…haha. Pretty bad to get DH for when playing first. But, he could pick the ball.

I will assume we are talking about HS baseball. I would not automatically hit for my pitcher unless he is the weakest bat. I would not play a pitcher in the field if he has thrown a significant number of pitches or felt tired. I also would not put him back in to play defense if I noticed any modified mechanics near the end of his outing.

As far as not using pitchers at all on defense, that’s really restrictive. I would field the best available line up each day. I would not put a pitcher as a starting defender the following day if he had thrown more than 60 or so pitches. He’s definitely not pitching or playing SS the next day.

I think the pitch count matters, other things like DHing don’t matter is much, but most important is the rest and what works for them, but it’s hard to know that.
Examples:
Steven Matz: “Day after your start is a little toss, next day is long-toss. Next day is touch and feel (10-15 pitches). Next day bullpen. Day off. Pitch.”

Noah Syndergaard:“Now I don’t even throw the day after my start, that’s just a day I where I don’t even pick up a ball. It seems that everyone preserves the sanctity of the two days running up to the start. I always do side, day off, pitch.”

They are opposite approaches but they work, so it should be about the individual, but take into account pitch counts, and how often games are because for HS those strategies don’t apply as well.